digging tech

[cosworth34677]

is there a place somewhere on how to dig with a excavator? i looked on youtube. and didn't find any ,but that was a quick search. im only asking because my hydraulic excavator digs different then my old one with screw drives.

any tip or sugjestions , on my old one you did all the work with the stick and just lifted out the dirt with the bucket, but it seems on this one you do the work with the bucket.

[Lil Giants]

http://youtu.be/1aGh834LqFs

http://youtu.be/gDYmWbRRymM

http://youtu.be/9GK70mzNZyg

The stick does 80% of the work, the bucket & boom movement is minimal to keep the stick moving. The bucket is about 10 - 20 degrees tilted down from level as you fill it. Don't try to hog it all in one scoop, another words don't over crowd & pull debris into the tracks.

Something that stuck with me from early on, a 30yr vet said to me, how to spot a good operator in an instant is watching how much their tracks move while they're digging, getting maximum digging force from their machine without lifting or sliding the tracks on the ground.

What I did early on was get two shoes boxes, filled one with durum wheat & transfered the grain back & forth... the grain had little resistance for the bucket to glide through, a bit of sideways give if I swung by mistake, but still had some mass to it similar to dirt... I perfected my technique before digging dirt, which is much less forgiving. Rice might be more readily available to you, just quite a bit lighter.

[foub01]

joe is right.always dig slightly using the tip of your bucket.the bucket should slide along the ground level to your machine and the soil should peel off like peeling the skin of an apple with a knife.practice on a hard floor keeping your bucket tip touching the floor

[cosworth34677]

ok i kinf of figured there is some skill to it . because i dont think there is a excavator 1.1 or model that could just push though the ground like butter.

[pugs]

Yep, keep floor of bucket almost level to bottom of cut. Only take depth of cut deep enough to fill the bucket in just over half a pull with the stick. Usually not the best to try and reach as far as possible and then dig, better to be around 3/4 reach max.

There was a video on youtube a long time ago, can't find it now, but the guy explained it pretty well as he was doing it. One thing I learned from that was when dumping try and only uncurl the bucket to the same position it need to be in when you get back to the cut, once there quickly bump the stick out and the material should fall out. Then when back to the cut the bucket is already at or close to the right spot to start digging and you didn't waste any time moving it full out plus had full power for slewing around. Granted the small models don't work exactly like the 1:1 but you should get the idea.

There's too many vids on youtube of guys in rental excavators trying to dig by pulling the bucket through the cut with the teeth pointed almost straight down, can't get much accomplished that way.

Don't know if it is possible to do with the RC models as can't operate enough controls at once, but in the 1:1 a good operator instead of just spinning the tracks to make a tight turn will use the bucket to lift machine slightly and pivot tracks all in one fluid motion.

[pugs]

Oh and never dig over the drive gears

[ihbuilder]

Originally Posted by pugs

Oh and never dig over the drive gears

I didn't really hear that 1 but, never dig over the side of the tracks unless bridging a trench to clean out . These guy's are right on .You guy's should've ran my 307 cat I dug a lot of basements with that lil bugger with a 4' bucket

[Azonic]

You shouldnt dig hard over the trackmotors, it puts to much weight on the drive wheel/motors, will wear out the drives/sprocket more quickly. Just what i learned during my education. (Thats in 1:1, i dont think it matters in the Rc-world.)

[cdm]

I filled up a plastic box (those cheap storage boxes that come in all types of sizes) and practiced with that and some garden soil. The floor on this one was panelled so if you dug in, you dragged the whole thing around. I also placed it on a slipperly floor so if you bit in too deep you moved the box around as well. basically made for a good thing to practice with. And great for indoors

As for real life i like to watch vantagetes channel and letsdig18 on youtube. and sometimes ares but he generally digs soft stuff only. vantagetes guys go through some hard stuff which is closer to how these small machines behave.

before i came on here i think i watched 90% of joes videos. watching him and then most of the people at the german shows (and other "elite" venues) he puts them to shame.

[Lil Giants]

Yeah, I watch a lot of vantagetes videos too, as well as several others to learn from.

Thanx cdm for the compliment, much appreciated.

[cosworth34677]

watching his vids now, and there pretty cool. but everything just looks cold! im a florida boy and anything under 40 is cold and 30's i stay in the house under a cover !